In recent years, researches and developments have been made on air batteries as drive power sources or auxiliary power sources for vehicles e.g. automotive vehicles. For use in a vehicle, it is necessary to assemble a battery pack by series connection of a plurality of air batteries in order to secure the output and capacity required for the vehicle. Further, it is important to reduce the thickness (size) of the air batteries due to the narrow limited installation space in the vehicle. As the distance from the electrolyte storage parts of the air batteries to the outside decreases with such thickness reduction, it is also very important to impart adequate electrolyte sealing performance to the air batteries.
There are conventionally known air batteries such as not only a so-called button-type air battery as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H03-297074 but also a chargeable/dischargeable secondary air battery as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-093983. The air battery of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-093983 has a stacked structure in which a porous film, a net collector, a cathode, a separator with an electrolyte, a zinc anode and a collector are stacked together in order of mention from the upper side and placed in a space between an upper cap member with an air hole and a lower circular container member. In this type of air battery, an insulating sheet is disposed around the cathode, the separator and the zinc anode so that the cap member and the cathode-side collector are kept insulated from the circular container member and the anode-side collector by the insulating sheet.
The above conventional air battery however has the problem that, because of the stacked structure of the battery structural parts between the cap member and the circular container member, it is difficult to reduce the thickness of the air battery while securing the adequate electrolyte sealing performance for the air battery. It has been a challenge to provide any solution to such a problem.